10 reasons to watch UFC 206, including a questionable title – but a meaningful fight

When UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier dropped out of his title fight against Anthony Johnson due to an injury, UFC 206 lost its main event. So, what did the UFC do? Well, through dumb luck, it was about that time that two-division champion Conor McGregor decided to “relinquish” his featherweight strap and focus on his lightweight title. At least that was the UFC’s take; McGregor seemed to dispute that whole relinquishing thing.

With McGregor no longer the featherweight titleholder, interim champ Jose Aldo was elevated to “undisputed” champion status, and a fight between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis was booked for an interim belt at Saturday’s UFC 206 event.

But wait – now only Holloway is eligible to win the title since Pettis failed to make weight.

If this confuses you, don’t feel bad, because frankly, the whole thing is a head-scratcher. But Holloway vs. Pettis in a five-round fight with the winner likely moving on to fight Aldo for the featherweight crown? That’s a good fight.

In the co-main event, UFC veterans Donald Cerrone and Matt Brown face off in a welterweight bout that has some very different stakes for the two intense competitors.

UFC 206 takes place at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Here are 10 reasons to watch the event.

After nine straight victories, Holloway, who’s No. 2 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, finally finds himself in a title fight. Yes, it’s a title created solely so the UFC can have a belt on the line in the main event of this event, but it’s still a title, and it will get the winner – well, Holloway, anyway – a shot at the “undisputed” champion, Aldo.

Holloway (16-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) faces Pettis (19-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC), the former lightweight champ. This was supposed to be Pettis’ second featherweight bout. In his first at 135 pounds, he submitted Charles Oliveira via guillotine choke. Pettis, now ranked No. 9 at featherweight, dropped from lightweight after three consecutive defeats. This was an ideal opportunity for him to get his career back on an upward trajectory, but failing to make weight and his ineligibility to win the interim belt now dampen the opportunity.

When Cerrone moved from lightweight to welterweight in February, it felt like it was just a way for him to stay busy and collect as many paychecks as he could. But after three consecutive stoppage wins at 170 pounds and three fight-night bonuses, Cerrone finds himself ranked No. 13 in the division and thinking title run.

Standing in Cerrone’s (31-7 MMA, 18-4 UFC) way is Brown (20-15 MMA, 13-9 UFC), who’s on a 1-4 slide. While Cerrone might be fighting for a spot higher in the rankings in Toronto, Brown could be fighting for his UFC life.

These two combatants love to go for the finish. We know Brown is going to come out looking for the knockout, but Cerrone’s best bet might be to take this one to the ground, where he’ll have the advantage over Brown.

Wherever this one takes place, it should be a fun fight.

If you have four and a half minutes to spare, head over to UFC Fight Pass and watch Dooho Choi’s three UFC bouts.

With three first-round knockouts, the 25-year-old Choi has been a wrecking machine since joining the UFC featherweight division, running his overall KO streak to eight.

Choi looks, well, he doesn’t look like the real thing; he looks like his ID gets checked at the beer stand on the regular, but he sure fights like the real thing.

At UFC 206 we’ll get a good idea of just how real the No. 14 ranked Choi (14-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is when he faces No. 6 Cub Swanson (23-7 MMA, 8-3 UFC), who is on a two-fight winning streak.

Tim Kennedy hasn’t fought since his controversial TKO loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 178. Before that, Kennedy had been on a four-fight winning streak, which included a unanimous-decision victory over current middleweight champ Michael Bisping.

Kennedy’s opponent, Kelvin Gastelum, has not fought at middleweight since he defeated Nate Marquardt by TKO in June 2015, a move that was necessitated after Gastelum missed the welterweight limit in two of three fights. Gastelum returns to 185 pounds for this contest after missing the welterweight limit so badly at UFC 205 that he didn’t even attempt to weigh in.

Kennedy has a two-inch height advantage and a three-inch reach advantage over Gastelum (12-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC), but we don’t know how the time off will affect Kennedy (18-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC), a fighter who is always in excellent condition in camp or out. Additionally, focus might be a concern with Kennedy since he’s been heavily involved with the MMA Athletes Association ahead of UFC 206.

As for Gastelum, he’s not on the best terms with the UFC, so he needs to look like a contender if he ever wants another welterweight booking.

In August 2015, Jordan Mein retired from the UFC at 25. He had competed in 39 professional fights by that time. Now 27, Mein (29-10 MMA, 3-2 UFC) returns to the UFC to face Emil Meek (8-2-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who makes his UFC debut.

Mein’s retirement was a surprise to many since he had displayed the potential to hang with the best of the UFC’s welterweight division, thanks to his technical and varied striking. A rested and reset Mein could make some noise in the current welterweight landscape.

Meek comes to the UFC on the strength of a first-round knockout of Rousimar Palhares at Venator FC 3 in May.

Nikita Krylov

Twenty-five fights into his professional MMA career, Nikita Krylov has never gone the distance, and he’s only seen the third round once. The 24-year-old has won 21 of those fights, including his last five in the UFC, establishing himself as a kind of cult fan favorite in the light-heavyweight division, where he’s ranked No. 13.

Like Krylov, his opponent, 29-year-old Misha Cirkunov is a finisher and has gone the distance only twice in his career, and winning all three of his UFC contests by stoppage.

Both of these men have more submissions than knockouts, but they’re capable strikers, something Krylov (21-4 MMA, 6-2 UFC) showed in his last fight when he decked Ed Herman with a walk-off head kick. Cirkunov’s (12-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) last fight was a third-round submission win over Ion Cutelaba.

This is the only light-heavyweight bout on the card, and if past performances are any indication, it should be a doozy.

Women fighting in the UFC generally have two choices: fight at 115 pound, or fight 135 pounds. That’s an issue for Valerie Letourneau, who when she last cut to 115 pounds told MMAjunkie, “I thought I was going to die that day. My body was shutting down. I could barely walk. I was shaking from my inside. I just tried to focus to get on my seat and not pass out. It was horrible.”

After a 125-pound catchweight TKO loss to Joanne Calderwood, Letourneau once again makes the cut to strawweight to face unbeaten UFC newcomer Viviane Pereira.

Letourneau (8-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC), ranked No. 12 at strawweight, has a significant height and reach advantage over Pereira (11-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), but the weight cut is a concern – not just for her, but for UFC as well.

Mitch Gagnon

At the end of 2014, Mitch Gagnon was an honorable mention in the bantamweight rankings after coming off a third-round submission loss to former champion Renan Barao – one fight after Barao lost his title to T.J. Dillashaw. After that contest, Gagnon underwent his second knee surgery in the span of a little more than two years.

Gagnon, an accomplished grappler with 11 submission wins in 12 career victories, returns to the octagon at UFC 206 in his home providence of Ontario. Gagnon’s (12-3 MMA, 4-2 UFC) opponent, Matthew Lopez (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), is coming off a submission loss to Rani Yahya.

This should be a fast-paced fight, and if it goes to the ground, expect a lot of scrambles. The thing to watch is cardio; Lopez faded in the Yahya fight, and Gagnon, with so much time off, could struggle in that department as well.

Lando Vannata

Lando Vannata made quite an impression in his UFC debut after taking a fight against lightweight title contender Tony Ferguson and putting Ferguson in a couple of tough spots early before falling to a second-round D’Arce choke.

Vannata’s free flowing, somewhat risky, and highly entertaining striking was the post-fight talk of UFC Fight Night 91. Vannata (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) returns to the octagon against 12-fight UFC veteran John Makdessi (14-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC), who defeated Mehdi Baghdad in his last outing.

When you couple Vannata’s style with Makdessi’s penchant for spinning techniques, this could be a wild fight.

Rustam Khabilov

The UFC seemed high on Rustam Khabilov when he joined the promotion and matched him up against former lightweight champion Benson Henderson in just his fourth UFC contest. Khabilov lost that fight via submission and then lost again in his next outing after dropping a split decision to Adriano Martins. Since then he’s won three straight, but he hasn’t sniffed top-level competition since the Henderson contest.

Khabilov has the tools to shine, but he’s hampered a bit by his style, which is based on slow pacing and holding ground position more than working for submissions, a style that won’t get a fighter noticed in the deep lightweight division.

Khabilov’s (20-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) opponent at UFC 206 is Jason Saggo (12-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC), a talented submission artist who is on a two-fight winning streak.

For more on UFC 206, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.